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After being in contact with Con and hearing the stories of the fabled Paul Conibear Ramprocker I made it my mission to track one down. It proved to be a very simple mission; I asked Tomsk if he had one and he said no but Main has one in his collection! I texted Main and within a couple of days I had the legendary board in my possession. The advert for Con’s Ramprocker is on the bottom right of this page from Skateboard! Magazine.

Not only that but a large pile of even older skateboards…the standout being the Roller Derby board with composite wheels which I have done a kind of photo shoot with below. I didn’t dare to give it a roll for fear of damaging the clay wheels which I don’t know how fragile they are. It’s a bit board porn but I can’t say how many of these things are still around. It was first made in 1959 and was the first ever mass produced skateboard. (Pictures are all clickable for a better and larger view)

So I took the Ramprocker down to it’s ancestral home at Langland carpark a couple of months ago and had a roll around and took these pictures. Thanks Main for loaning me your valuable collection. It’s been rad to get a feel for the old boards and made me appreciate Con’s achievements on a skateboard even more as it’s a bitch to ride compared with how easy we have it these days.

A quick post as I recently had another contribution. This time it was a good stack of great photographs taken at the West Cross ramp at the E.S.A. contest that was held in May 1987. The photographs were taken by Nick Tallis and add to the video and pictures I already have from the event. The photo is of Trawler skating in the contest and the news clipping was given to me by Frenchy who is in the photo in the article too. Thanks everyone who has contributed so far, slowly coming together!!

This film was taken by Ron ‘Milk’ Williams in 1978 in South Africa. I first got in contact with Ron through Paul Conibear. Con plays a major role in the story of skateboarding in Swansea. Through conversations with Con i discovered there were several chances to get some actual film of skateboarding in the 70’s, I had already found some photographs through Con and Frenchy and located some good material in Skateboard! Magazine. Film though was a different matter but i had been lucky with video from the early 80’s so anything was possible. Con remembered going on filming trips with legendary surfer and film maker Rod Sumpter but that avenue closed as the films of Con hadn’t survived the years.
Another friend of Con’s was Ron Williams who now lives in Australia, originally from Porthcawl Ron had filmed the local surf scene in the 70’s but had also filmed Con’s skating too. Best of all the films had survived and Ron was more than willing to send them over to be used in Over Ply Wood. I couldn’t believe my luck, film of 70’s skating in Swansea and as it turns out in London, Cornwall and Europe too!! The films arrived and i went over to Porthcawl to collect them from a friend of Ron’s.
Not only was there plenty of 70’s skateboarding on the 4 400ft reels of film there was a ton of surfing too. The film below is the South Africa trip. Loads of the actual surfing but also beach shots of the U.K. team members, a parade through town of all the competing teams, evidence of apartheid with signs on the beach for whites only….this was before everyone really started to take notice of the crimes taking place in South Africa and the international boycotts started to gain mainstream acceptance. So a historic piece on many levels.
Thanks again to Ron Williams for his films and Mark Knights for a great job on digitising them. More clips to follow soon.